Cbus spent $27,569 flying Swan to super summit
Big construction industry fund Cbus has revealed it spent $27,569 for flights, accommodation, transfers and meals covering the attendance of its chair, Wayne Swan, at the Australian Superannuation Investment Summit in the US, earlier this year.
Questions were directed to Cbus ahead of the calling of the Federal Election by NSW Liberal Senator, Andrew Bragg, but the answers were only published on the Senate Economics Committee Parliamentary web site last week.
In those answers, Cbus revealed what it had spent on Swan, who is a former Labor Treasurer and also happens to be national president of the Australian Labor Party and has played a role at a number of election events.
Cbus noted that Swan was not the only attendee at the US summit, with the fund’s Head of Private Markets, John Kraiten, also attending because he was already in the US “as part of his normal engagements with investment managers and offshore pension funds”.
Cbus also confirmed the more than $1 million a year it spends on its membership of industry associations.
Noting that it had made public the information on its web site, Cbus said that in the 2024 financial year it spent $471,021 on its subscription to the Super Members Council, $410,920 with the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors Limited and $201,779 on membership of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
Both the Super Members Council and the Australian Councill of Superannuation Investors were established from within the industry funds movement, while ASFA sits outside the industry funds framework.
Everything seems above board….
Yep first class flights five star accomodation and a weeks scenic touring All above board ???
This should come out of their Fees not out of the FUND!!!
Let’s remember CBus has one staff member working in their deceased estates team..priorities.
What a joke.
An absolutely disgusting joke.
lets compare the pair. in the spirit of disclosure and sunlight, will Senator Bragg please disclose to this publication the cost to the Australian taxpayer for his most recent ‘study tour’ – flights, accommodation, meals, everything.
So it’s acceptable for a Superannuation fund using members’ money to waste it in this instance?
As trustee’s, they have higher obligations. As Super funds receiving considerable & substantial concessions and carve outs, more so than any other business and especially the brave Senator, they need to operate at the highest ethical standards. The Senator is under the eye of the public and is easily removed from office. The behaviour exhibited here is totally unacceptable, morally broke, given the regulatory carve outs and role in society.
Let’s not also forget for decades the very same Super fund called out Commissions and payments to Advisers as unethical and yet here we are.